Website: www.supergen-bioenergy.net

Objectives

The overall aims of the project are:

• To undertake leading edge R&D initiatives in the bioenergy chain, from biomass production through conversion to utilisation with a particular focus on interfaces and optimisation of existing schemes and new concepts
• To build closer and more selective bridges between the emerging bioenergy industrial sector and the wide-ranging academic research so that rapid implementation and commercial exploitation can take place
• To provide a well-qualified pool of high-quality expertise to service the bioenergy sector
• To establish a forum to provide industry and academia with an opportunity to learn about new developments in bioenergy nationally and internationally.

The SuperGen project publishes a periodic newsletter known as British Bio-energy News. To subscribe please visit the SUPERGEN website.

Structure

The project foccuses on the interaction between three key themes of a bioenergy system (biomass production, thermal conversion and utilisation of the resultant biofuels) and between each of these areas and the environment in its broadest sense. The work programme is divided into the following six work packages (with the WP leader shown in brackets):

WP1 Process techno-economic and environmental analysis (University of Ulster)

• Technically analyse complete bioenergy process options
• Integrate components from other WPs, to optimise routes, and highlight areas to maximise performance and economics
• Assess economic performance
• Assess life cycle performance
• Examine socio-economic factors, including social acceptability, land-use, landscape, transport, processing, emissions
• Carry out multi-criteria evaluation at technical, economic, environmental and social consequences of an agreed set of options (Case Studies) with stakeholder involvement.

WP2 Fuel specification and matching to conversion processes (University of Leeds)

• Relate agronomic practices to biomass composition and characteristics
• Evaluate the fate of alkali metaIs in combustion, gasification and pyrolysis,
• Study effect of low lignin biomass on pyrolysis liquid composition and characteristics,
• Establish relationship between biomass quality technology and product characteristics
• Calculate carbon balances for biomass
• Produce crops at large scale for testing
• Behaviour of metals in combustion and co-firing
• Develop screening methods for genotypes
• Evaluate grasses for ethanol and hydrogen (H₂ consortium).

WP3 Thermal reactor modelling (University of Sheffield)

• Integrate CFD with particle modelling codes and reaction kinetics
• Develop reaction pathways and mechanisms for each feed material and each conversion route, particularly relating to tar cracking and secondary reactions in all conversion processes
• Derive co-firing and co-processing performance models
• Predict deposit formation related to feed characteristics and reactor configuration
• Study metals release during combustion.
• Derive improved process models of packed and fluid bed reactors and reaction systems

WP4 Minimisation of engineering risk (Cranfield University)

• Perform combustion trials on new feed materials with co-firing, blending and additives to control fouling
• Critical review of the current status of gas cleaning technologies and specifications for fuels
• Combustion, gasification and pyrolysis triaIs on new feed materials and blends with coal
• Evaluate fouling potential
• Derive RAMO models for combustion and gasification heat exchangers
• Overall systems issues - efficiency and RAMO
• Evaluate novel gas cleaning for gasification cycles
• Derive monitoring and control systems for fast pyrolysis.

WP5 Co-firing and co-processing biomass and biofuels (Aston University)

• Evaluate co-firing and co-processing of biomass and coal and study fate of alkali metals
• Improve pyrolysis liquid quality by feed selection and process improvement
• Develop and validate sub-models for the co-firing of coal -biomass blends and biomass-biomass blends
• Derive performance models of fossil fuel combustion with supplementary bio-oil or producer gas
• Derive models for techno-economics, life cycle and social criteria analysis of co-firing and co-processing
• Evaluate co-firing bio-oil in a coal fired boiler
• Evaluate co-firing producer gas in a coal fired boiler.

WP6 Biomass and bioenergy network (Aston University)

• Establish a Network - British Biomass and Bioenergy Forum
• Develop links with other researchers, companies, and organisations nationally and internationally
• Organise open meetings, workshops and seminars for interaction and dissemination
• Develop a data base of active researchers and companies
• Publish a newsletter and website,
• Promote the consortium
• Provide support and advice to policy and decision makers.